The Government has pledged to reduce the budget gap to 5.3% of GDP in 2012 from 8.5%in 2011 and by more than 2 percentage points next year to get within the EU's 3% limit.

The IMF said on April 17th it expects budget deficits to persist in Spain, where the economic recession will be deeper than in other euro-region countries. The IMF forecasts a shortfall of 6% of GDP in 2012, narrowing to 4.1% in 2017.